Emergency plans to extract Prince Harry from Afghanistan were being drawn up tonight after the news leaked that he had been on a secret combat tour in Helmand province since before Christmas.

After being denied the chance to serve with his unit in Iraq, the third in line to the throne was deployed in Afghanistan in mid-December. He has been working in Helmand province as a Forward Air Controller – responsible for providing cover for frontline troops – and has been personally involved in clashes with Taleban guerrillas.

His four-month deployment had been kept secret because of a Ministry of Defence agreement with news organisations, including The Times, but the details can now be made public after the news leaked out overseas and on the internet.

So, you know, The Times has pretty much its entire online newspaper devoted to stories on the subject, even though they’re all drawing from the same pooled interview from December and video taped interview from Helmand, and are all largely repeating the same things. Yet they still spin off more and more stories. And all the other papers are doing the same. So evidently there is “interest” in what the British Army is doing on the front lines. Stupid Drudge.

I wonder if he’s getting any of the flack described here that the Aussie mag got (last couple of paragraphs)?